When a greedy person has to give food away. The pain is made up for by roast garlic.

It's finally happened. I had to give produce away. With three freezers full and a running total of over 52kg of tomatoes and 21kg of runner beans we are feeling overwhelmed. It doesn't help that we have no kitchen. We don't even have no kitchen. We have no kitchen floor. We are surviving on food that can be steamed, slow-cooked or microwaved. If truth be told we haven't even done that - the local take-aways have done very well from us.  I must say that the novelty is starting to wear off.

So with the allotment bursting with food and nowhere to go, I took the plunge and offered runner beans to my allotment neighbour Bernie who said that he knew an Englishman who might want them (I gathered that as an Irishman he doesn't hold much truck with them). I also offered them to my friend Anna but despite having an unproductive north-facing garden they had managed to grow too many for the two of them.  I offered them to my city dwelling friends who take in an organic box but even they felt over-loaded with runner beans.  Hating to let the food go to waste I resorted to offering them to a great new cafe, The London Particular, that has opened in New Cross that serves local and organic food (and what can be more local and organic than beans from an allotment round the corner?). Thankfully they took them and I might even claim a free hot chocolate at some point!

I'm very excited as I have a new full time job. It will be a bit of a struggle to keep up the plot just on weekends but things are winding down now and the main things to do are to sow sweet peas, broad beans, move and turn the compost, relocate the giant shed (don't ask - it's all to do with planning permissions and being too greedy to sell it for a song), build raised beds and plant garlic.

I have at least done the last of these. I planted 12 cloves of elephant garlic and am hoping for a good crop in June/ July next year. As I paid £3.90 from a farm shop in Cornwall last week for a head of elephant garlic I am looking forward to being as rich as Midas. Or at least to cut it in half, wrap it in foil, roast it a low heat and scoop out the sweet flesh and spread it on a slice of good bread. Oh and use a good layer of unsalted butter. Total YUM.